Show niece what a good home represents

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Dear Carolyn • My family consists of 20-plus people. Every Thanksgiving we gather at my sister's house and Christmas at mine. Our niece, who is divorced, has three children, but two are adults so they only show up later to snack and I guess visit us. Her youngest is under 10 so she brings him, and if she has a boyfriend at the time, she asks if it's OK to bring him. I am getting tired of meeting these guys only to find out she is no longer with them and/or they have hurt her. How do I gently tell her I no longer want to meet or have these short-term boyfriends in my house? Any gentle advice is appreciated.

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous • Can it be gentle if it denies you the thing you want? This short letter hints at chaos in your niece's personal life; if nothing else, there's some swirling mix of poor choices, poor treatment and sketchy priorities when it comes to men. Plus a kid who's still very young. And while I sympathize fully with the impulse to insulate yourself from this pain, I'm not really worried about you, or the other 17-ish people who are holiday bystanders to this chaos. My worry stands with the son who has no say in what for him is the daily presence of an ultimately transient figure who eventually dumps on his mom. I also feel for the niece, though she at least has the power to help herself. Here's hoping she wakes up and uses it. In these situations, one of the strongest forces of love and stability is an extended family that acts as a safe place, a patient example, a steady source of compassion where put-downs too often preside. No matter how you phrase it, nixing the boyfriends will come out as a request that she keep her trash out of your house, and that's not building her up. Not for nothing, you also can't know when one of these boyfriends will become the one who stays. For the sake of her emotional health and her son's, show them what good treatment feels like and what the word "home" represents. You can't make them get that message, much less apply it, of course  but you can set it down before them every chance you get.

Carolyn Hax's column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

ARTICLE PHOTO GALLERY

Share This Article

USER COMMENTS

Reader comments on sltrib.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Salt Lake Tribune. We will delete comments containing obscenities, personal attacks and inappropriate or offensive remarks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. If you see an objectionable comment, please alert us by clicking the arrow on the upper right side of the comment and selecting "Flag comment as inappropriate". If you've recently registered with Disqus or aren't seeing your comments immediately, you may need to verify your email address. To do so, visit disqus.com/account. See more about comments here.